I've been able to do lots of creative things as an Artist: murals, children's books, toy design, cosplaying, even event planning... And now my latest endeavor: Wandmaking.

Yes, you read that right. I'm making wands and I absolutely love it. I had made some simple wands for our Dumbledore's Army club when it started because I realized kids might not have a wand and would need to borrow one so I made a set of "class wands." Even then people inquired if they were for sale, but I thought of them as the club's wands. In fact at our first meeting the kids helped paint them. Nevertheless a seed was planted...

A year later I'd decided to have "Wands" be a topic for a D.A. meeting and I decided it was time I made myself a wand- a real wand, using my A-game.

I took the Pottermore quiz, learned what my wand would be made of and got to work. Since I really do swim as a mermaid twice a week or more I gave mine a nautical theme with shells, starfish, seeweed wrapping around and the eye of the Horned Serpent that reflects the magical core inside (an American wand core), Holding it I felt something peculiar. Potential.

Because what is Magic to us stuck in a Muggle world? I think it's making something... out of nothing. And that, for me, is kind of what Art is. Holding the wand I maybe felt a bit silly, but when you're actually holding a wand you think, what could I do? What could I make happen? And maybe we need a physical prop to induce that kind of creative thinking, because I hadn't had those thoughts before holding the wand for a while.

What would holding a wand make you feel? We're not all Artists, but things like friendship, laughter, memories... those are made out of nothing, too. And there's so much magic in the world around us, a wand may just help us notice and reflect on it more than we do now.